About

Sherena has been dancing since she could walk. Growing up with a mother who had studied Ballet, Tap and Bellydance, she had a hip scarf on her hips at the age of 3. She started her dance training at the age of 6 with Rosemary Popovich in Alliance, Ohio, taking Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Polynesian and Bellydance. While studing with the Popovich Dance Studio, she performed in many local shows, parades, and yearly recitals. At the age of 9, Sherena performed her first Bellydance solo with a live band and never looked back.

Sherena has performed Bellydance at many venues. When she was only 11 years old she became the house dancer for local hot spot (The Desert Inn Restaurant) where she can still be seen during a Friday evening performance.

While her Bellydance career continued to grow, Sherena auditioned for the Canton Ballet Co. where at age 12 she became an apprentice and in 6 short months had been awarded a coveted spot in their Dance Company. With the Canton Ballet, she studied Classical Ballet, Modern Dance, Hip Hop and Character Dance. Under the instruction of Cassandra Crowley (Artistic Director) and Angelo Lemmo (Choreographer to the Company), Sherena had many roles in well known ballets; Arabian lead in the Nutcracker as well as many core ballet roles in Cinderella, Swan Lake and Peter and the Wolf, to name a few.

Another passion of Sherena’s is health and fitness. Dance and a healthy lifestyle go hand in hand. In 2007 she developed Bellydance Aerobics classes that became incredibly popular at Local Gyms. With that popularity, Sherena decided to marry the two worlds and open Art in Motion Dance & Fitness Studio; a place where she could implement her diverse dance training as well as offer small fitness classes that gave an intimate personal training feel without the large price tag.

While opening the new studio, Sherena was selected out of thousands of applicants to be in a new web-based reality show, Project Bellydance, where contestants competed to win their own instructional DVD. The world voted and Sherena was awarded first runner up! Michelle Joyce (Producer of Project Bellydance) could see Sherena’s diverse dance background was not limited to just bellydance and has filmed a Ballet instructional DVD, Yoga and stretching for dancers as well as a Bellydance Drills DVD set to be released later this year. Hot off the heels of PBD, Sherena also competed in a Belly Dancer of the Universe competition taking 2nd in the Drum Solo category out of 52 contestants as well as 3rd in the Universal category.

Project Bellydance let the world know who Sherena was and now travels teaching workshops all over the U.S. and internationally. She loves coming back to her studio and teaching locals as well as students who travel from West Virginia, Virgina, Pennsylvania and Indiana for private, intensive lessons.

Sherena loves to choreograph, from Ballet to Bellydance, Jazz and more. She also loves fusing styles together to create something new and unique, but what inspires her most are the students, their love for dance, their dedication and drive to learn a new choreography, or maybe seeing a fitness student meet their next weight goal. Her advice to her students in Dance or Fitness is; Never ever give up, never lose sight of your goals and always AIM for your Dreams!